It can take a long time to make a film. Six years ago, an outfit called Unified Pictures announced that it was going to make a computer-animated film about Noah’s Ark, told from the point of view of the animals. One of the Unified executives even said he expected the film to be finished within two years.

Then, four years ago, the folks at Unified said they had struck a deal with a company called Rising India, which would allow the film to be finished by 2011.

And now, here we are in 2013, and the trades are reportingonce again that things are starting to move on this film. But this time, the news is not about corporate deals, but involves actual animators: specifically, we are told that the film will be overseen by John Stevenson, director of Kung Fu Panda (2008), and Cameron Hood, an animator on several DreamWorks cartoons including The Prince of Egypt (1998) and How to Train Your Dragon (2010). So that bodes well, at least.